Apple this week is believed to have tapped its vast developer community to begin testing Mac OS X 10.5.7, a sizable maintenance and security update to the company's Leopard operating system with a particular focus on syncing improvements.

Those people familiar with the matter say the update, like those that came before it, will bundle a plethora of bug fixes spanning a wide range of system components and services. In its current pre-release form, the software reportedly boasts nearly six dozen code corrections and weighs a hefty 440 megabytes in barebones form.

In particular, Apple is said to be focusing on syncing issues that have plagued many of Leopard's standard, forward-facing apps, such as as Mail, AddressBook, and system preferences. A problem with Safari not accepting certain types of cookies will also reportedly be addressed.

Among the nearly two dozen other components receiving attention in beta of Mac OS X 10.5.7 are graphics drivers, Time Machine, printing services, screen sharing services, MobileMe syncing, AirPort services, text services, and iCal, those familiar with the software claim.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 will represent the seventh incremental update to Leopard since the software hit the market in late October of 2007. It's expected to be released sometime in the coming months.

The last update of Leopard was Mac OS X 10.5.6, which arrived on December 15th.

What about that USB "bug" that seems quasi-intentional? It should not have taken this long to fix that, and it is a serious problem. They should not have waited this long to fix it, Microsoft would have released some randomly numbered KB update by now if they cared.

The only problem I have with Mail is that it never plays the "new message" sound.

10.5.6 breaks upgrading from pervious versions of Mail. I work in a Mac shop and get calls daily from users upgrading and their Mail suddenly stops working. You have to erase the database files in which case it will successfully update the Mail from Tiger > Leopard.

Anything else common to those users? We've got many machines that went from 10.4 to 10.5 and no such issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bauch

10.5.6 breaks upgrading from pervious versions of Mail. I work in a Mac shop and get calls daily from users upgrading and their Mail suddenly stops working. You have to erase the database files in which case it will successfully update the Mail from Tiger > Leopard.

Anything else common to those users? We've got many machines that went from 10.4 to 10.5 and no such issues.

If 10.5.6 is installed before Mail is opened after a Panther/Tiger upgrade, you'll have the issue. If you installed Leopard previously and opened Mail (and it's database updated), you'll have no issues. This IS a bug in 10.5.6 only.

They better fix mail. Upgrading Mail's database from previous versions is completely f'ed since 10.5.6. 10.5.6 in generally has been a pretty crappy, buggy release. Hopefully 10.5.7 is better.

What was the point of quoting the *entire* article, when you are not even replying to anything in the article? Your profile says you've been doing this for years so you can't even claim ignorance here.

In Windows, a window can be a document, it can be an application, or it can be a window that contains other documents or applications. Theres just no consistency. Its just a big grab bag of monkey...

What was the point of quoting the *entire* article, when you are not even replying to anything in the article? Your profile says you've been doing this for years so you can't even claim ignorance here.

Of the two dozen issues AI mentions in the article, I'm having specific issues with two. I've posted many time, hopefully Apple is listening.

1. Screen Sharing: SS with dual monitors, switching from one monitor to the next, using the Adaptive Quality does not work well. Once the monitor switches you have an overlay of the previous monitor. The only way to remove it is to click around. Full Quality does not have this issue, but that's only worthwhile if you are on a local network.

2. Time Machine: the random, Time Machine Could not Backup error. Seems like a lot of users have this issue, me included. It happens randomly and I cannot figure out why this happens. It normally doesn't happen while I'm on the computer, but I see when coming back.

I do also have issues with monitors not sleeping randomly, but after I exit FF, I no longer have that problem.

My major gripe with 10.5.6 is iCal. Generally just a bit ... awful? Often it won't even recognise a Command-H to hide, let alone trying to get it to correctly handle calendar invites sent in via mail, or changing the default "5 minute" alarm to anything else.

10.5 is pretty solid by now. Sure, in late 2007 it was pretty flaky. Over the course of 2008 they got it nailed down pretty well. Now, it is a stable and mature OS, not perfect, but it is solid. The fact they go the extra mile is pretty nice.

The only problem I have with Mail is that it never plays the "new message" sound.

Are you using IMAP or POP? Are there any other mail clients or services (ie, gmail) also checking your mail account? If you get new email and no alert sounds, is the new mail marked as read or unread?

The only time the new mail alert doesn't sound for me is is when gmail checks my account before Mail fetches new messages. (Long story short, I use gmail to read my personal email while at work because my mail provider's webmail interface sucks.) Gmail fetches my mail via POP, but leaves it on the server so I can download it to Mail when I get home (via IMAP). But when the mail is retrieved by gmail, the message gets marked as read by my ISP's mail server. Therefore, when Mail downloads the email, Mail doesn't know it's a new message since it's already been "read."

Quote:

Originally Posted by jen729w

My major gripe with 10.5.6 is iCal. Generally just a bit ... awful? Often it won't even recognise a Command-H to hide, let alone trying to get it to correctly handle calendar invites sent in via mail, or changing the default "5 minute" alarm to anything else.

Worst. Program. Ever.

iCal doesn't need a bug fix. It needs a complete rewrite. It's by far the weakest program Apple has put out in a long, long time. The original version was mediocre at best. The latest version did a poor job of implementing new features and integration points, and actually made the interface worse.

I seem to remember that Apple now uses iCal internally as of the release of Leopard. Hopefully they now recognize it as a POS. But I don't expect anything to change until Snow Leopard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rain

FIX THE AUTO SLEEP PROBLEM !!!!

How many here have that problem where you have to put the machine to sleep manually?
From all the forums about it, it seems to be quite wide spread.

I think it may have to do with what programs you have running at the time. For example, you don't want your computer to go to sleep while Time Machine is backing up. MobileMe sync will also prevent your computer from sleeping. While MM sync should be fast, data corruption or inconsistencies can cause it to run longer. I've seen it run for over 20 minutes before, which will keep your computer awake. I don't use iPhoto anymore, but a few versions back I noticed that if iPhoto was open my computer wouldn't go to sleep (not sure why). Lately, I've noticed that if I have Facebook's Live Feed page open in Safari, my computer gets a bit of insomnia, although it eventually does put itself to sleep, but it takes longer.

Of the two dozen issues AI mentions in the article, I'm having specific issues with two. I've posted many time, hopefully Apple is listening.

1. Screen Sharing: SS with dual monitors, switching from one monitor to the next, using the Adaptive Quality does not work well. Once the monitor switches you have an overlay of the previous monitor. The only way to remove it is to click around. Full Quality does not have this issue, but that's only worthwhile if you are on a local network.

2. Time Machine: the random, Time Machine Could not Backup error. Seems like a lot of users have this issue, me included. It happens randomly and I cannot figure out why this happens. It normally doesn't happen while I'm on the computer, but I see when coming back.

I do also have issues with monitors not sleeping randomly, but after I exit FF, I no longer have that problem.

That would be very annoying if I use that keyboard mapping. Since it is only affecting a combination of Dvorak with Carbon apps I don't see Apple working to get this fixed quickly, but assume that it would be sent out with the next point update.

At least they didn't put the kibosh on the thread you posted.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Time Machine: the random, Time Machine Could not Backup error. Seems like a lot of users have this issue, me included. It happens randomly and I cannot figure out why this happens. It normally doesn't happen while I'm on the computer, but I see when coming back.

Apple has been pretty good with OS X to not deliver cryptic messages. You don't see some weird error number or hexademical number followed by a message. Saying that it failed with no instruction or button to figure how to prevent it from happening again is pointless.

Even having it occur after the first time it occurs is pointless. If it happens twice in a row or more than x-many times within y-many times then your backups then it should inform you of an issue... with possible solutions.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

The auto sleep problem is not 3rd party software. It's somehow the OS.
I have zero apps running, nothing in background running, and it still wont' auto sleep.

I've also read numerous posts about people who completely wiped and re-installed, it slept with 10.4, but breaks again with 10.5/6 update applied.
This is with nothing attached but keyboard and mouse, and no software running or any 3rd party software installed.
It affects Mac Pro's, Macbook Pro's and Macbook Air.

The article is about 10.5.7 and fixes... so my post is entirely relevant as well.

Yes, Virgil-TB2 could have been somewhat more tactful, but it is annoying when people quote a large amount of text for no apparent reason. The problem is that you are using the "wrong" reply button. At the bottom-right of each post is a "reply" button with blue icon - hitting this will quote that post, which is useful in a thread such as this as if you are replying to a specific post you'll want to quote at least some of it so that people know what you're replying to.

The button you want is at the bottom-left, just underneath the advert banner after the last message in the thread; marked "Post Reply" with a white "+" icon. Or you could use the "quick reply" box underneath that.

Are you using IMAP or POP? Are there any other mail clients or services (ie, gmail) also checking your mail account? If you get new email and no alert sounds, is the new mail marked as read or unread?

Thanks for the tips. I've got one IMAP and four POP accounts, and Mail is the only client I use, so a new message in Mail is always unread. There was a hint about this over at MacOSXHints, so I'm not the only one to have experienced this. Unfortunately, the suggested solution doesn't work for me. In the comments someone mentioned re-installing the 10.5.6 combo update solved the problem - I haven't tried that yet.

The only problem I have with Mail is that it never plays the "new message" sound.

At home Mail checks .Mac (I refuse to use the new name that sounds like something from Redmond) and 4 separate POP accounts. It usually plays the "no mail" sound even when I have a dozen new messages. Only rarely will it play the "new mail" sound.

At work Mail checks .Mac and an IMAP account and usually plays the "new mail" sound when I have new mail.

That would be very annoying if I use that keyboard mapping. Since it is only affecting a combination of Dvorak with Carbon apps I don't see Apple working to get this fixed quickly, but assume that it would be sent out with the next point update.

At least they didn't put the kibosh on the thread you posted.

trust me. it is annoying. so is knowing that there are only a few users out there that are being affected. i wonder how many? it didn't ever occur to me that there might be others... never expected there to be a thread on it... i'll check it out!